The third largest economy in Asia wants to become greener and less dependent on energy imports.

At the same time, India wants to supply the world with green hydrogen.

As early as 2030, India wants to “cover at least a tenth of global demand for green hydrogen,” said a government spokesman.

The Indian cabinet has now released 2.25 billion euros for hydrogen projects.

Christopher Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.

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The government expects industry to pump around 100 billion euros into the sector.

By 2030, India wants to have created a capacity of 500 gigawatts for non-fossil energy - primarily driven by sun and hydropower.

At the World Economic Forum last year, India's Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the subcontinent would become the world market leader for green hydrogen.

According to estimates by the Hydrogen Council, which includes 150 companies in the energy and raw materials sector and McKinsey consultants, the demand for green hydrogen in the four major Asian countries of China, Japan, India and South Korea will increase to around 285 million tons by 2050 , around 43 percent of world demand.

More than $300 billion would flow into new projects by 2030.

600,000 new jobs

First, India wants to produce around 5 million tons of hydrogen from non-fossil energy by 2030.

By then, 50 million tons of greenhouse gases are to be replaced.

At the same time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet plans to save one trillion rupees (11.4 billion euros) in energy imports.

"The plan aims to make India a global hub for the production, use and export of green hydrogen," said Modi's ruling party spokesman Satyendra Prakash.

600,000 new jobs are to be created in the sector.

Hydrogen can be produced in a climate-neutral manner using electrical energy from renewable sources such as solar or wind power.

According to the government, India will build a production capacity of 60 to 100 gigawatts for the electrolysers required for this.

Since the production costs for green hydrogen are currently 300 to 400 rupees per kilo, the start-up financing is necessary to significantly dampen market prices.

Hydrogen produced with natural gas currently costs around 130 rupees per kilogram.

Almost a year ago, Oil India started the first production of green hydrogen on the subcontinent in Assam.

Multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani also wants to become a pioneer of the trend again: the CEO of the conglomerate Reliance Industries initially wants to get big into blue hydrogen, in which the carbon dioxide produced in the manufacturing process is to be stored underground.

Overall, his group wants to spend 75 billion dollars on climate-friendly projects over the next 15 years.

Lots of competitors

For his part, his competitor Gautam Adani, the third richest in the world, has announced plans to invest $70 billion in “green energy”.

Ambani, currently the second richest Asian after Adani, wants to follow a proven pattern: He plans to roll out the sector with many billions of dollars, as he has already done in the mobile phone business and on the Internet thanks to his global network.

By 2035, 35 years ahead of the rest of the country, the leading conglomerate with a market value of a good 200 billion dollars wants to be climate-neutral.

Meanwhile, China's oil company and BASF partner Sinopec is working on building a plant for green hydrogen with a volume of 20,000 tons per year.

The oil giants of the West are also flocking to the growth region to get involved in hydrogen: BP is now the anchor shareholder in the Asia Renewable Energy Hub in Australia.

Around 1.6 million tons of green hydrogen are to be produced there every year.

Just like India, the BP group alone wants to cover around 10 percent of the world market.

Competitor Chevron is working with the Indonesian oil company Pertamina and the Singapore plant manufacturer Keppel on a plant that will use geothermal energy to produce green hydrogen.

In this way, up to 160,000 tons are to be produced annually.

The Japanese Mitsubishi Corp.

has chosen the Indonesian state oil company as its partner.

Mitsubishi's competitor Mitsui & Co, on the other hand, has a 28 percent stake in a French Engie project in Australia to produce green hydrogen with solar power.

Expectations are currently rising in Asia, since steel and automobile production in particular are waiting for the new form of energy here in order to be able to improve their sometimes devastating climate balance sheets.